Opinion: We Cannot Blame Israel for Everything

Ebrahim Essa, a regular writer to the Mercury opinion pages, had just stooped to a new ultimate low again, equating taxi fare to the problem in the Middle East whilst, of course, blaming his number 1 nemesis—Israel.

Apparently now, because of this war in Iran against the terror axis of the Ayatollas, our taxi drivers here in SA are going to cause ‘civil unrest’, but not because of the weakening Rand, our abnormally high unemployment rates, the ANC’s debilitating influence on our economy over the last 30 years, nor the grand scale corruption that had hollowed out our State coffers through ANC greed and nepotism, no, but only because of the tiny state of Israel! How can this mess we see in SA ever be the ANC’s fault, right, Mr Essa? It must be Israel’s or the Whites’ fault, right?

By Essa’s reasoning, we should just allow Iran, the Global number 1 State sponsor of terror, to develop a nuclear bomb, so that Israel can be done away with, and all our problems here on local ground will simply disappear into thin air… all we need is to destroy Israel, right, Mr Essa? Surely then, our rape count will drop, our schools will start functioning all of a sudden, we won’t have so many unemployed citizens relying on social grants, nor will farm murders take place anymore… or how about our water woes and pot holes, or load shedding…won’t that also magically go away as soon as the Jews are gone? Perhaps, after Smodridge and Ben Gvir’s disappearances, our Rainbow Nation will suddenly prosper, because Jews wreck everything, right? But please, let’s not blame Ramaphosa’s ANC for anything… with 142 race laws, surely what we are seeing is not Reverse-Apartheid, Mr Essa?

I wonder if Mr Essa knows about the atrocities which were committed in Iran by IRGC madmen, under the now-deceased Khamenei’s watch, and how their own people were slaughtered and butchered in the streets by radical, heavily armed, State-aligned Jihadi rebels and Shia Militia barbarians? What happened at a market in Rasht, when several defenceless citizens were set on fire for hiding from their own government, Mr Essa? Does this not deserve the strongest condemnation possible, yet you faff on about Gaza and how Israel is an Apartheid state, occupying ‘stolen land’, as they all say, quoting the Holy Bible in a way which seems, well, disingenuous. You refer to the ‘Good Book’ in your letter, as if it’s just another book, obviously, nothing you value or believe in at all? Please do not profess to lecture us about what the Bible says or doesn’t say, just look around you and realise that terror, Radicalism, events such as October 7, 2023 and the killing of innocent citizens in Iran by its own evil government, do not conform to normal, civil society or Western values of love, forgiveness, patience and godliness. The White, English and Afrikaans-speaking folk you refer to in your letter are struggling just as much as anyone else in SA. When unemployment rears its ugly head, the taps run dry, our infrastructure falls apart, and business owners have to shut down their businesses or relocate, or even emigrate.

Your pointing out how taxi drivers are suffering due to the war in Iran makes just about as much sense as saying that after 30 years of democracy in SA, redress must still take place!